Down the Rabbit Hole
by Magician April Aries
Summary: Oneshot. Not in the OTNK storyline. "I can't, sempai," he mumbled. "I… was scared of telling you but… I have a confession to make."


A/N: June 9! Happy birthday to the beloved twins. I wanted to write a twincest story but my request log is filling up so I decided to put those first.

When I was asked to try my hand at a HunnyxKaoru story, I was seriously stumped at first. I tried searching on ffnet for stories on this pairing but only came up with a bare handful! On the For Richer or Poorer forums, they don't even have an official pairing name.

On the other hand, Kyouya and Kaoru have tons of stories dedicated just for them (by comparison, anyway; the Mom/Dad and twincest still take the lion's share). And one of my personal missions in writing fanfics is to convert people to the oddest pairings possible. I realize that it's hardly popular with readers, but I think that by writing more and more uncommon pairings, we let people see how cute they actually are. Ultimately this was why I chose to do this ahead of the popular demand for KaoruxHaruhi (sorry guys... I'll get to that eventually!). I also took a break from the usual comedy to go for outright sweet. Sorry, my sense of humor has started to fail me.

Anyway, this is for pi-or-pie, who requested a HunnyxKaoru! Thank you for being a great reviewer. Also for all my reviewers for NaF; you guys are the best. I'd love to name you all individually, but let's save that for the next chappie of NaF, ne?

Dragging on too long (as usual!) so without further ado... not set in the OTNK-verse; a little oneshot for an underappreciated pairing, set after the fateful incident where the twins, Tamaki and Haruhi spilled tea on Hunny's Usa-chan.

* * *

Down the Rabbit Hole

He was trembling, and he knew it. He had taken a huge gamble and asked Mori to wait outside while he spoke to Hunny. Taking a deep breath, he walked to the doorway of the host club bathroom and knocked on it before sticking his head in. "Sempai…"

"What's wrong, Kao-chan?" the diminutive senior asked him. He was standing at the sink, busily scrubbing at his stuffed bunny. "Everyone else is already gone. Shouldn't you have left with Hika-chan?"

"Yeah… I told him to go ahead today," he mumbled, looking down at his shoes. "I stayed behind because… about Usa-chan…"

"Usa-chan should really learn how to drink properly," Hunny replied, smiling, as he rinsed the aforementioned doll. Kaoru knew that tea wouldn't easily come out of the fabric—when he was younger he'd made the same mistake in his mom's designing studio over a bolt the same cloth Usa-chan was made of. But it wasn't just cloth this time, easily replaced with the right order to the right fabric supplier; this was a memento of his friend's grandmother. "Even if he really wanted tea, he shouldn't have gotten it all over himself! I'm going to teach him proper table manners when we get back home!"

"No, sempai…" He only prayed that Hunny wouldn't him too hard. He really wanted to keep all his teeth. And hopefully bones, but if it came down to it he would pick keeping his teeth intact over a couple of broken ribs. "It's…"

"Kao-chan… something's troubling you," the smaller boy said. "It's okay, you know. You don't have to think of complicated things if they bother you that much."

Oh God, it was so tempting to take his advice and just leave. Mori had already given them all a way out, tricking Hunny with that 'Usa-chan really wanted to drink tea' excuse when he, Haruhi, Tamaki and Hikaru had all been involved in the real incident that had caused them to spill it on the stuffed bunny. But…

"I can't, sempai," he mumbled. He didn't think his conscience would let him sleep if he let himself lie about it. The doll was really important to Hunny, after all. "I… was scared of telling you but… I have a confession to make."

A queer expression crossed Hunny's face. If it had been anyone else, Kaoru would have called it a smirk—but Hunny didn't smirk, did he? "Don't say something like that, Kao-chan. You'll get my hopes up."

"Huh?" Then he realized what his words sounded like. "Er, no, I didn't mean it like that! So you don't have to worry about rejecting me." He paused. "Wait… what did you mean… 'get your hopes up'?"

"Never mind, I was just kidding! Silly Kao-chan, being so serious. What was it that you wanted to tell me?"

He frowned inwardly. It wasn't like the other boy to speak the way he just did. "It was my fault that Usa-chan got dirty. I accidentally spilled it on him. Mori-sempai just wanted to cover for me."

Hunny was silent for a moment as he took the doll out of the water and wiped his hands on a towel. "Just you, Kao-chan?"

"What?"

"You mean to say that you were the only one involved? Not Hika-chan, or Tama-chan or Haru-chan?"

"No, I was just clumsy. It was all me." He may have been confessing, but he had no intention of involving the others in it. He braced himself for impact. "They had nothing to do with it."

And then Hunny laughed.

"You're really cute, Kao-chan, but you shouldn't try to take all the blame for it when other people were included too. I already knew what happened."

Kaoru's jaw dropped. "What…?"

"Takashi told me about it afterwards, of course. I know that tea is yummy, but Usa-chan's a stuffed toy. He doesn't have a tummy for the tea to go into. I guessed that you guys did something because you were all panicking so much, and then Takashi told me after that. I didn't bring it up because I didn't want you guys to feel bad."

"You're… not angry?" the Hitachiin said in amazement.

Hunny shook his head, taking a step closer to him. "I get a little cranky after my naps, but I wouldn't have gotten mad. Mistakes happen, ne?"

"B-b-but it's Usa-chan. I know how much he means to you."

A smile spread across Hunny's face. "That's right. I love Usa-chan."

"Then…"

"But I also love Kao-chan," the senior explained simply.

There was a pause before what Hunny had just said hit him, and he realized he was turning the color of his hair. "What?" he said, trying to will away the heat in his cheeks. "Er, sempai…"

"So don't worry so much about it," Hunny said brightly. "Ne?"

Oh. Of course Hunny didn't mean it that way. He was pretty much a kid in everything he did, so when he said 'I love Kao-chan' it meant something like 'You're a good friend'. Kaoru let out a little sigh. "I still don't feel happy about what happened. I actually thought once I told you you'd punch me or something. I was all psyched up for it too."

The blonde took a moment to consider his words. "Well… it really wasn't very nice of you to spill tea over Usa-chan," Hunny said. "Okay then! Bend down, Kao-chan."

Kaoru's jaw dropped. He was really going to hit him?

"What's the matter? I thought you were all psyched up!" the older boy burbled, smiling sweetly as though he hadn't just pronounced a death sentence on him. "My bun-bun-punch isn't that bad, you know."

From what they'd heard tell, his bun-bun-punch could knock out a Marine. The redhead winced and stooped down, closing his eyes. _Oh God oh God please don't let it hurt too much… I'm too pretty to die… but oh no, wait, they always say that the beautiful ones die first, right? I didn't even get to finish Super Galactic Space Warriors X…_

A soft giggle came right beside his ear. The nervous expression on his face was just priceless. "And they say _I'm _the adorable one?" Hunny murmured as he placed his tiny hands on Kaoru's shoulders.

The sophomore's eyes flew open when he felt lips meet his.

_Holy…_

It was a sweet, chaste kiss that tasted of tea and strawberry cake. When Hunny pulled away, he could only stare at him in confusion, his heart thudding in his ears. "S… sempai?"

"There! All punished." Hunny patted him on the head. "Now be a good boy and stop being silly, thinking about so many complicated things. I would never hurt you."

Kaoru nodded slowly, trying to wrap his head around the situation. "I'm just… sorry. That rabbit's important to you, I know."

"Kao-chan is also very, very important to me. If my Usa-chan gets a little dirty, I can wash him and he'll be okay! But if I hurt my Kao-chan, then I might break him… and he won't be fixed so easily. So I'll treasure my Kao-chan and not get mad at him or at any of our friends." Hunny smiled at him. "Ne, I'm going ahead, okay? Takashi is probably waiting for me outside. I'll see you tomorrow, Kao-chan!"

He skipped away, grabbing the drying bunny and his school bag, leaving the redhead to sink to his knees, face crimson.

"_My _Kao-chan…?" echoed the younger boy, blushing, as he buried his face in his hands.

* * *

A/N: Not my best, but I find that writing a more 'mature' Hunny is fun. I'm tempted to make it longer than a oneshot, but I think it's kind of cute to leave it as it is, plus I already have NaF to handle... I've got heaps and heaps of work to do for school and for my student org. Hope you guys liked it. Have a super-sparkly fudgy chocolate-covered awesome day, and let's all celebrate the Hitachiin twins' birthday!


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